et high surrounded it. In the centre was the lookout
tower, rising twelve feet above it; and over the door another turret,
projecting some eighteen inches beyond the wall of the house, slits
being cut in the stone floor through which missiles could be dropped,
or boiling lead poured, upon any trying to assault the entrance.
Outside was a courtyard, extending round the house. It was some ten
yards across, and surrounded by a wall twelve feet high, with a square
turret at each corner.

Everything was roughly constructed, although massive and solid. With
the exception of the door, and the steps leading to it, no wood had
been used in the construction. The very beams were of rough stone, the
floors were of the same material. It was clearly the object of the
builders to erect a fortress that could defy fire, and could only be
destroyed at the cost of enormous labour.

This was indeed a prime necessity, for the hold stood in the wild
country between the upper waters of the Coquet and the Reed river.
Harbottle and Longpikes rose but a few miles away, and the whole
country was broken up by deep ravines and valleys, fells and crags.
From the edge of the moorland, a hundred yards from the outer wall, the
ground dropped sharply down into the valley, where the two villages of
Yardhope lay on a little burn running into the Coquet.

In other directions the moor extended for a distance of nearly a mile.
On this two or three score of cattle, and a dozen shaggy little horses,
were engaged in an effort to keep life together, upon the rough herbage
that grew among the heather and blocks of stones, scattered everywhere.

Presently the lad caught sight of the flash of the sun, which had but
just risen behind him, on a spearhead at the western edge of the moor.
He ran down at once, from his post, to the principal room.

"They are coming, Mother," he exclaimed. "I have just seen the sun
glint on a spearhead."

"I trust that they are all there," she said, and then turned to two
women by the fire, and bade them put on more wood and get the pots
boiling.

"Go up again, Oswald; and, as soon as you can make out your father's
figure, bring me down news. I have not closed an eye for the last two
nights, for 'tis a more dangerous enterprise than usual on which they
have gone."

"Father always comes home all right, Mother," the boy said confidently,
"and they have a strong band this time. They were to have been joined
by Thomas Gray and his